The present invention is directed to relief brickwork incorporated in a refractory brickwork wall, particularly over openings therethrough. More particularly, the present invention is directed to such relief brickwork over a hot blast exit opening in a refractory brickwork wall of a combustion chamber of a hot blast stove.
This general type of relief brickwork is known and depicted in the journal "Fachberichte, Huettenpraxis, Metallweiterverarbeitung", Technical Reports of Metallurgical Practice and Metal Treating, 1977, pages 956-957. This type of relief brickwork is intended to protect the hot blast exit opening of a hot blast stove from deformations which arise due to vertical stresses, for example deadweight, of the shaft brickwork and the dome of the hot blast stove, as well as from tensile or compressive stresses due to temperature changes in the brickwork. The type of relief brickwork shown in the above journal is in the shape of a gable and is formed of bricks which are components of plural layers of bricks of the wall. Such design is capable of entirely withstanding neither horizontal shifting forces due to temperature changes nor vertical load forces due to the weight of the upper portions of the stove. This is due to the fact that horizontally loaded relief bricks between the horizontal joints of the brickwork wall in the direction of the filling brickwork interior to the the relief gable can be shifted, and also due to the fact that other vertical forces from the gable of relief bricks can be transmitted directly to the brickwork of the wall within the area of the gable.